1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to multimedia content management techniques and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for performing frame buffer rendering of rich Internet content.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid proliferation of multimedia content (i.e., user interactive controls and application generated controls that create an exciting and interesting multimedia experience) throughout the Internet was caused by numerous technological innovations. Users spend a significant amount of time conducting various activities (e.g., surfing educational websites, viewing detailed product demonstrations, accessing digital libraries and participating in expert discussion forums related to the multimedia content). These users often download and view multimedia content on various display devices (e.g., a mobile phone, an electronic book reader, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a hand-held gaming device and/or the like from various Internet resources (e.g., web pages, multimedia clips and/or content, emails and/or the like).
Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) provide interactive functionality for the multimedia content. Consequently, RIAs have become a very popular multimedia presentation tool on websites throughout the Internet. An RIA typically is a collection of multimedia content that is wrapped within programming code to be executed by a playback routine. For example, some RIAs may comprise animations, interfaces, games, video clips, audio clips, and/or other interactive or passive content (referred to herein as “rich Internet content”). In addition, an RIA typically includes program code to instruct a playback routine (referred to as an “RIA Player”) how to display and progress through the content of the RIA. One such RIA Player is a FLASH® player (FLASH is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated) that executes an RIA in the form of a SWF file to present rich Internet content to a viewer. The SWF file format is defined in by the SWF File Format specification (version 10) as published, at http:www.adobe.com/devnet/swf/pdf/swf_file_format_spec_v10.pdf, by Adobe Systems Incorporated of San Jose, Calif. Varieties of RIA players include frame-based players.
Generally, rich Internet content, which is authored at a high frame per second rate, is seamlessly rendered and/or displayed on desktops, laptops and/or the like. Considerable computing capabilities at these devices facilitate the rendering of the rich Internet content. However, rendering the rich Internet content at such as a high frame per second rate is not suitable for playback on certain display devices due to limited computing resources (i.e. processing cycles and memory space) and a smaller screen. Furthermore, these display devices suffer excessive processor utilization resulting in higher battery consumption while playing such rich multimedia content.
Conventional techniques are available for displaying the rich Internet content at a high frame per second rate on display devices. However, such techniques merely reduce the speed of the frames, which increases the playing time. Such techniques also skip frames in order to retain the original playing time while reducing processing requirements. The conventional techniques tend to consume a significant amount of computer resources and therefore, are cumbersome and costly for practical utility.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus to improve rich Internet content processing by performing frame buffer rendering of rich Internet content in display devices.